A late June update

Tron, enjoying some 'nip

I'm a raincoast girl who in January 2009 packed up and moved to the desert. Our first year here I thought I was going to dry up - I think we had 5 days of rain all year. This year has been different. May and June it's rained at least every other day. Everyone around me is miserable but I'm in heaven! The garden isn't loving it as much and everything is a little behind. But on a rare day of sun I got out there to do some scouting and found a few things up and growing...

radishes

mini grapes! hard to imagine these will eventually be real fruit

the cabbage are filling out

kind of a cheat - I bought the rose with buds on it 2 weeks ago!

Almost jam season

It's almost jam time! I've already made one batch this spring with rhubarb and frozen raspberries. But frozen doesn't count, I want fresh berries! Strawberries, raspberries, currants. It's all been delayed this year due to the province wide rains that have kept everything wet and cool. But I've heard reports of strawberries and fingers crossed there will be some at the market tomorrow. So on today's to do list is to track down my empty jars and get some washed. Quite the job seeing as how the cabinets are still only half installed in the kitchen and we're washing everything in the bath! Anyway, I just wanted to say how much I love the jam jars I found at Burgon & Ball. I've got to figure out how to do something like that myself!

Raspberry Rhubarb Jam

this is the basic recipe I use for everything. it's by weight... i'll try to track down the cups later.

500 g diced rhubarb
500 g raspberries
800 g sugar
juice of 1 lemon

Place all the ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring until the jam stage has been reached (220 degrees or when 2 drips of jam come together to slide off your spoon as one). Pour into clean jars and seal. Makes about 5 one cup jars.